New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-02-15
trust VIC give our officers"
THE WAGES OF SIN.
SOME GRAMMATICAL POINTS.


70 tho Editor Of The tribune.
SIR; Is 1t so certain that Goold Brown was wrong
In his construction of the Scrptura text The wages
OF sin is death Romans vi, 23) involving trans
position OF tho subject by hyperbaton, the subject
being death and not wages and the expression, there
fore, alphabetically correct Does this really do ex-
treme violence to the natural construcsion"l The
entire sentence should be considered The wages Of
Sin Is death but the gift of God Is eternal lite through
Jesus Christ Lord" Is 1t not quite obvious that
10 the second clause eternal LIFE is the vt
the proposition, though placed after the verb Ths
apthesis seems clearly to be between death as the
wages OF SIM" and eternal lite as the gitOt God y
serve sin. and death Ia your recompeuse serve God,
and eternal lie rs yours as HIS gift through Christ
Luther translated this passage: !" DEM der Tod ist
der Sunden Gold aber die Gabe Gottes ist das ewige
Leben In Chrsto Jesu unsem Herrn." Hero the
subject In each clause is in its natural place. ~,
his own rule. stated, though IL seems when only
part OF the rule is cited. The rule /. Gram. of Eng
lsh Gram, p. 576 "A neutcr passive verb be-
tween two nomInatves should be made to agree with
that which precedes it: except when the terms
traDsposed. and the proper subject Is put after
the veib by question or hyperba'on. or this excep-
ton the expression under consideration Ia given as an
example. Thus Brown did not violate but followed
his own rule; and the question In regard to this
expression Ia primarily IT not exclusively, one OF
Interpretation not of grammatical proprety tor there
can be doubt of the correctness OF your position,
that Websters view of the singular meaning OF wages
is not sanctioned by usage HENRY KIDDLE.
Ut is not obvious-far from it-that "the
second clause in the disputed sentence "is the
subject OF the proposition, though placed after the
vero.' Whoever will read the whole chapter
will be more likely. rs 10 seems to us, to take
"wa2cs' for the subject than "death.' But In
fact the meaning is the same either way: and
since there Is nothing in the sense 10 indicate
that the phrase must be understood hind part
before we arc bound TO take the words in their
natural order We not justified in trans
posing the nomnativcs merely In order to mako
grammar; rs Goold Brown does when he arbi-
trarily explains this sentence by suppostional
hypcrbaton.-Ed)
To the Editor Of The Tribune.
SIR There many who like Shakespeare have
little Latin and less Greek Your correspondent who
asks you about the grammar of "he wages of sin is
death" should be informed that the Apostle was
familiar with the Greek idion. He lett out the verb 10
be supplied by the reader, who he supposed. would
know that neuter-plural nouns are followed by the
verb In the singular according TO the rule IN my ola
grammar "Neutra pluralia gaudent verbo singulari
The King James translatOrs, you may be sure, were
scholars enough to know that the verb to be supplied
the third person singular of the verb to be- because
the nominatiye wages" is q neuter plural noun.
JERSEY.
This Is hardly pert to the question. The
syntax of English Is not governed by the rules Of
the Greek grammar.--EdD